Government-run rehabilitation centres for women are being used in some cases to confine girls and young women who have eloped, while many other centres have failed to give care to the survivors of sexual assault and mentally challenged inmates, according to a survey done by the National Commission for Women (NCW) of 26 centres in four States.
The Women and Child Development Ministry runs Swadhar Greh as short-stay or temporary rehabilitation centres for adult women survivors of domestic violence and trafficking, as well as for women who have nowhere to go after being freed from jail.
The survey, conducted in August and September, found that most of these centres were not being used for the beneficiaries, and often functioned as hostels for school girls and working women; in some cases, girls and women were housed there without an order from a court or a child welfare committee.
The Ministry has now written to all the States to submit a list of Swadhar Greh after verifying their performance. They have also been asked prepare a quarterly progress report on the condition of the shelters and conduct surprise visits. The Centre has also asked that CCTVs be installed and entry of men restricted in the centres.
A home at Bhadoi in Uttar Pradesh had girls in the age group of 15-19, and most of them had eloped. The homes in Mirzaganj and Allahabad were found to provide shelter to its inmates without a court order. They also had mentally challenged women, who were rolling on the floor at the time of inspection, but there was no sign of treatment given to them.
A centre at Chikkaballapur in Karnataka was found to have a rape survivor under severe mental trauma, but it had no provision for her special care. There was no counselling for inmates suffering from depression. It housed girls who had eloped, but wanted to return to their partners.
A victim of human-trafficking was an HIV patient but a shelter in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, failed to provide her access to treatment. The report said she wanted to return to her family but was forced to stay. Many other inmates wanted to return home, but the shelter did not pay heed to their requests. In a Cuttack facility, a third of the victims were mentally challenged who needed to be shifted to a mental asylum.
Two centres in 24 Paraganas in West Bengal were found to be operating as a hostel for school girls who were in touch with their parents, the study said.
